Marvel Knights: Spider-Man

Marvel Knights was one of Marvel's attempts at producing more "mature" comic books. Featuring darker stories with more graphic violence, it was targeting the aging comic book buying public. One of the stranger decisions was to include kid-favorite Spider-man in the mix. The results were not as bad as one might expect. The stories were actually pretty good, though they lacked Spider's signature sense of humor. The violence was cranked up a bit, but this worked in the favor of villains like Venom, who always seemed so toned down. The book starts with a fight between Spider-man and arch-enemy Green Goblin where Spidey loses his cool and unleashes on the villain. The citizens of New York call Spidey out for going too far. This is one of the first instances I can remember of what is becoming a fad, which is showing the public turn against heroes for being too destructive or violent in their attempts to save the public. The story soon pulls in venom, Scorpion and the Black Cat. The Venom symbiote wants to be rid of Eddie Brock, who auctions off the alien suit to the highest bidder. Venom really gets to get psychotic in this book, which is cool to see. Aunt May gets abducted, which leads to Spidey being coerced into breaking the Green Goblin out of prison with Black Cat's help. After this is accomplished, they have to face the Sinister Twelve (if six villains are bad twelve are worse, am I right?) with a newly Venom enhanced Scorpion playing second fiddle to the Goblin's leadership. The Goblin also recreates a moment from his and Peter's shared past, capturing Mary Jane and taking her to the Brooklyn Bridge. To be honest, the only thing that sets this apart from other Spider-man arcs is the ability for the villains to really cut loose with their murderous tendencies.

The story is pretty engaging though, and it was great to see Venom as really threatening for the first time in a long time. The new mature direction was short-lived before the book was brought back to being Sensational Spider-man and then cancelled altogether in favor of publishing Amazing Spider-man more often. This was also one of the last runs before Spider-man joined the Avengers, which was inevitable but which was a move I was against. If you are in the mood for some brainless super-powered mayhem, this is definitely a good book to check out. The initial run was written by Mark Millar with art by Terry Dodson, Frank Cho, and Rachel Dodson.